wrote, or amused himself with his guests. The evening was closed with reading or a game of whist. He was fond of children, and his step-son's family was a welcome addition to his household. One of his visitors thus describes him in his private life:-'I found him kind and benignant in the domestic circle, revered and beloved by all around him; agreeably social without ostentation; delighting in anecdote and adventures; without assumption; his domestic arrangements harmonious and systematic. His servants seemed to watch his eye and to anticipate his every wish, hence a look was equivalent to a command. His servant Billy, the faithful companion of his military career, was always at his side. Smiling content animated and beamed on every countenance in his presence.'

But, though thus contented to sit under his own vine and fig-tree, Washington did not withhold his interest and attention from the great political question of his day, the confederation under which the thirteen free colonies were to be united. When it was resolved to hold a Convention in Philadelphia to revise the federal system, he was unanimously elected head of the deputation of Virginia; and on May 27, 1787, he was, also unanimously, chosen president of the Convention. During the four months in which the Convention was in session, Washington took no part in the debates, partly from his own natural inclinations, and partly on account of his presidential position.

The result of the deliberations of the Convention was the Constitution of the United States of North America; and one of the first duties to be performed under it was the election of a President. Washington's name was at once on every one's lips, as the citizen of all others most fitted for the post. His

own feelings on the subject were conflicting. He had looked. forward to ending his days in the peaceful seclusion of a happy home, and in pursuits that were daily becoming more agreeable to him. With the office of President, there must be inevitably joined a vast amount of labour, of trouble, and vexation. Yet the unanimous voice of the nation was not to be lightly opposed. He had given heretofore his best energies for his country, and if his country demanded his services still longer, he felt that he must obey its summons. In February 1789, George Washington was elected first President of the United States, for four years from the 4th of March following. A short delay occurred before the official intimation arrived at Mount Vernon; but on April 16, he set out for New York, then the seat of government. His whole progress to New York, where he was inaugurated on April 30, was one continuous triumphal procession. Everywhere he was welcomed with the heartiest enthusiasm, and every one vied with another in doing honour to the great patriot.

The narrative of Washington's life as President belongs rather to the history of the nation than to the account of his private life. His new duties were scarcely less arduous than those he had performed as commander-in-chief of the American army; for he had now to stand at the helm of a nation forming itself into a State. Without precedents to suggest his course of action, presiding over a Cabinet with an authority not yet defined, and assisted in his task by advisers whose differences increased his labour, Washington ruled with rare wisdom and with perfect impartiality. It is quite impossible adequately to understand the peculiar difficulties that beset the President, without a somewhat careful and detailed study of the political history of the United States; and such a study

would be quite out of place here. When his first term of office came to an end in 1793, the confidence of his countrymen in him was unabated; and he was unanimously re-elected; but in 1797 he refused to harbour a suggestion of entering upon a third term; but, in a dignified and valuable farewell address, resigned his office.

Once more he turned to the peaceful retirement of home. He had now entered upon his sixty-fifth year, and he looked calmly forward to ending his days at Mount Vernon. 'To make and sell a little flour annually,' he writes, 'to repair houses going fast to ruin, to build one for the security of my papers of a public nature, and to amuse myself in agricultural and rural pursuits, will constitute employment for the few years I have to remain on this terrestrial globe.' He resumed, as far as possible, his old regular habits; but now his privacy was sadly invaded by those whom respect or-as Washington used to hint-curiosity brought to visit the greatest man of his country. But Washington had not yet attained his final leave from the public service. In 1798 the relations betwixt the new American Republic and the new French Republic had become strained, and war was believed to be imminent. The command of the whole American army was offered to Washington. The thought of his own desires and his own comfort did not check him for one moment; his country required him, and that was enough for George Washington. Sorrowfully enough he prepared to abandon the calm restfulness that was so dear to him, and at once threw himself into the business of his post, devoting himself to all the details of the equipment and organization of the army. The anticipated rupture with France did not occur; but Washington was not fated to lay down his command. He had once more returned

to Mount Vernon, and resumed his habits of active supervision over his estate; but the end was now near. On the morning of December 14, 1799, George Washington awoke, suffering keenly from ague and difficulty of breathing; he had taken cold during the previous days, on one of his daily rides. The attack grew hourly more dangerous, until it became plain that it must be fatal. Washington himself seemed to be convinced of its mortal character from the first; and calmly and cheerfully he faced death. While his friends and attendants were overwhelmed with grief, he tried to alleviate their sorrow. Courteously considerate as ever, he tried to induce them to rest, and apologized for the trouble he caused them. Between ten and eleven o'clock at night the end came, and he died without a sigh. Four days later, a simple and sorrowful procession followed his body to the family vault at Mount Vernon; but throughout the world there was a great grief for one of its great men.

President Jefferson, whose own life is also sketched in this volume, thus characterized his illustrious predecessor :-' His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order; his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke; and, as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion. Hence the common remark of his officers of the advantages he derived from councils of war, where, hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was best; and certainly no general ever planned his battles more judiciously; but, if deranged during the course of action, if any member of his plan was disarranged by sudden circumstances, he was slow in readjustment. The consequence was that he often failed in the field, but rarely

against an enemy in station as at Boston and York. He was incapable of fear, meeting personal danger with the calmest unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting till every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt; but, when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was the most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known; no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decisions. He was, indeed, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was naturally irritable and high-toned, but reflection and resolution had obtained a firm and habitual ascendency over it.

His person was fine, his stature exactly what one could wish. Although in the circle of his friends, where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation, his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither copiousness of ideas nor fluency of words. In public, when called on for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. He read little, and that only on subjects of agriculture and English history.'

But not only Washington's fellow-countrymen lift their voices in eulogy that is no flattery. Lord Brougham penned a noble tribute to the memory of the republican; and with his words we shall close this sketch:-'With none of that brilliant genius which dazzles ordinary minds, with not even any remarkable quickness of apprehension, with knowledge less than almost all persons of the middle ranks, and many welleducated of the humbler classes possess, this eminent person is presented to our observation clothed in attributes